Welcome to The Weekly Simplifier, brought to you by…

Contents:

1.  A Note From Shawn
2.  Quote of the Week
3.  Article: (The Lessons of) Biking for Groceries
4.  This Week’s Simplification Tip
5.  In the News & On the Web
6.  Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
7.  Keep Smiling

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1. A Note From Shawn

Many people I’ve spoken with recently are enjoying glorious weather. Unfortunately, the climate relief, for many, is being counter-balanced by frustrating computer and life challenges. Local amateur astrologists have noted the planetary lineup during this time is just screaming “trouble”—I wish they had more clout to send people on mandatory vacations. Yes, I think this past week was supposed to be spent at the beach, and someone forgot to tell us. Well, not everyone. The Italians are in “ferie” for the month of August, meaning, they are at the beach avoiding irritating computer glitches, and interpersonal conflicts.

I wish that this week’s newsletter was in the form of a plane ticket to Maui, but you get to create that on your own. Instead, let the article provide some food of thought for assessing your priorities and boundaries—key for healthy living. The newsletter has something for everyone: Looking for great back-to-school tips to help your kids get and stay organized? You got it. Looking for computer mouse shortcuts? You got it. Need to take a break at the computer for some giggles? You got it. Tired of reading the computer screen but still want to know what Project Simplify is up to? You got it.

Have a wonderful week!

Shawn
Head Simplifier, Project Simplify

2. Quote of the Week

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”

- Thomas Edison

3. Article:  (The Lessons of) Biking for Groceries 

By Lance Brown

Recently, a local tree offered me the opportunity to give the car-free lifestyle a try for a little while. Before I knew it (and with a screech of tires), I had accepted, and it wasn’t long after that I was rolling my bicycle out from the basement area, and wondering if I could make it work as my only form of transportation for a while. 

It’s been a couple of months since then, and my adventures in biking for groceries have taught me a lot about the value of planning, especially when resources are limited. And really, aren’t everyone’s resources limited? Though you may not be restricted to a 50-pounds-per-outing maximum like me, it still makes sense to think about efficiency, and how to make best use of your (limited) resources.

Riding a bike into town for all of my supplies has put a lot of things we take for granted into stark perspective for me. Things like priorities, planning, and knowing my limits, to name a few.

First, some background. I live way out in the country, at the end of a dirt and gravel road. The nearest supermarket is 20-25 minutes away by car. A normal round trip on my bike is about 20 miles, approximately half of which is uphill. A trip into town now takes between  2-1/2 hours and 4 hours, depending on how many places I go. And after about 15 to 18 trips like this, they still tire me out pretty well. So the impact reaches further than the trip itself.

The lesson there is simple: simplify, or else. I can only do so many of these trips, so often. If I’m doing the bike thing, that’s just how it is. So it’s essentials only, for the most part. Each trip has a limited carrying capacity, and so far, competition for space in each trip has been fierce. Groceries and errands start lining up for the next trip immediately after the last one, and I have to be the strict arbiter of priorities—deciding, within fairly rigid limitations, which items are really essential, and which can be done without.

Which isn’t to say I’m torturing myself with deprivation—I’m not. I’ve hardly gone without ice cream at all during this adventure, for example. But I have had to think hard about just about everything that gets included in a journey into town. Does it involve extra travel? Are there hills? How much does it weigh? How big is it? Will I have to rush home with it? 

All these questions matter quite a lot when you’re biking far for supplies. But even if you aren’t having to measure your groceries by the pound, evaluating the real cost of your choices—of including certain things in your life or your planning—is important all the time. Your time and resources are limited too. Maybe not limited to the size of a large duffel bag and 10 miles each way, but still…

Here are some resource management lessons I’ve been learning during my adventures in biking for groceries:

Saying No

In accepting this effort to try out forced simplification via bicycling, I was also accepting the notion of saying “no” to a lot of things in my life, at least for a while. It’s not as negative as it sounds, though. In contrast, it has helped me to identify and concentrate on what’s essential to me—a key step in living a simpler, more focused life. When I do rejoin the ranks of the auto-driving public, it will be a lot easier to notice that which is wasteful and/or unnecessary for me. Plus, it will do my clutter load some good to have one summer where I don’t “brake for yard sales” (and “Free” signs) every few days. :-)

Planning Matters

Planning is everything in my situation. Poor planning can mean hours added on to a trip, or even being stranded and having to walk home with an unwalkable load. Before I head out for a trip into town, I know exactly where I intend to go, in what order, and what I will do or get when I get there. I double-check all my choices and assumptions to make sure I’m not missing something, and if there are any variables in play, I come up with a workable backup plan. All this happens before my foot hits pedal one. Once I do head out, the details of the agenda are set, and at least that one part of my trip is easy and stress-free. Which is good, because I’ve got other things to worry about on these trips—like not getting run off the road, and keeping sweat out of my eyes, for example. And hills…

Watch Out For Hills

It’s amazing how much we take hills for granted when we’re in a car. Now that I’m biking, “How bad are the hills?” is my first question when considering a new destination. And if you think of hills metaphorically, that’s an important question to consider when taking on projects or making commitments. Every commitment carries with it a series of obligations—some obvious, some not—and it’s in your best interest to make an honest evaluation of those things before you jump into a given endeavor. Metaphorical hills can be even more exhausting than literal ones (and you don’t even get the bonus of having firmer legs!) 

Deprivation = focus

The bottom line is that periods of deprivation or limited resources can teach us a lot about how to make the most of what we do have, in order to do what we really need to be doing. This is one of the major tenets of leading a more simplified life, and also an extremely important part of doing business as effectively as possible. And while going bike-only for the summer has been rough (and really, really sweaty), it has been enlightening too. 

When actor Jamie Foxx was filming his amazing performance as Ray Charles for the movie Ray, he wore uncomfortable prosthetic contact lenses which rendered him completely blind. He kept them on all day (not just when on-camera) so that he could get the best understanding possible of what Ray’s perspective was like. Before long, Foxx’s hearing became ultra-sensitive, as he began to develop some of the strengths that blind people develop to make up for their lost sight. Foxx’s voluntary deprivation helped him better appreciate the limited (but still very powerful) perspective of the musical genius he was imitating—and it won him a much-deserved Oscar award for his performance. And Ray Charles himself, and his amazing career, is a testament to the fact that even with limited resources, your ability to make the most of what you do have is virtually unlimited—with the right perspective.

Just don’t try biking for groceries and the blinding contact lenses at the same time, OK?

—
Lance Brown is Co-Editor of The Weekly Simplifier.

4. This Week’s Simplification Tip

Mouse Shortcuts

contributed by Lance Brown

In last week’s Tip we learned that I used to have a bit of an attitude about learning keyboard shortcuts. While I may have exaggerated a little (I never actually pinched anyone who tried to teach me one, for example), my years-long resistance toward learning them was for real. Not so with mouse shortcuts. Maybe it’s the animal lover in me…I don’t know. But I’ve always loved using tricks of the mouse to make my computing experience easier. And I encourage others to love it too.

Most of the mouse shortcuts aren’t so much alternatives to keyboard-based maneuvers, but alternatives to much more cumbersome mouse action. Like mousing up to the “Edit” menu, then mousing down to the “Copy” option, then back to your text, then back up to “Edit”, down to “Paste”, then back down to your text again. Ugh. If you’re still doing moves like that, please stop! Your wrist will thank you for it.

For many of the most common tasks, both Windows machines and Macs have “context menus” which can save you countless steps and “mouse miles”. And both offer ways to select convenient pieces of text, lickety-split (or clickety-split, in this case). Here’s the lowdown:

Right-click/Ctrl-click (for “Context menus”)

Context menus are just a short list of common options which come up when you right-click (Windows) or press “Ctrl” and click (Mac) in a given spot on your screen. The options presented are “in context”—meaning, they are related to what is selected or where your mouse is when you click. In other words, you will get different options when right-clicking on different things or in different pages.

Here are some examples of options you’ll get when you right-click/Ctrl-click…

• In a web browser: print, refresh, back, view HTML source
• On a link: open in new window, save link as…, bookmark link, copy link location
• In a Windows folder: new folder, new shortcut
• On a document file: open, print, send to…
• On a selected bunch of text: cut, copy, paste, select all

NOTE: Your options may vary based on your operating system and your system settings. Try it out to see what you can do!

Selecting text blocks by clicking

You might be surprised how many miles your mouse travels over time. One way to reduce that is to stop unnecessary sliding. And one way to do that is to start selecting text by just clicking, rather than by the old click-slide-unclick method

Double-click on a word to select it. Triple-click, and the whole text block will be selected. (On Macs, it’s just the current line of text, not the whole block.) No mouse movement needed! 

What’s that strange sound I hear? Oh yeah—it’s your wrist saying “Thank you!” :-)

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5. In the News & On the Web

If you know of something in the news or on the web that should be featured here, let us know!

In The News

Address this mess (Chicago Sun-Times)
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-messy25.html 
The story of the transformation of one teenager’s bedroom from nightmare to shining example—in two hours!

Cleaning up clutter: You’ll save time and money, experts say (Bradenton Herald)
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/living/15129448.htm
Excerpt: People who consult with professional organizers are rarely the chronically disorganized, [Barry Izsak, president of the National Organization of Professional Organizers] said. “They are people who recognize that personal organization is a survival skill.”

Getting a grip on schoolkid clutter (Chicago Sun-Times)
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/07/31/Floridian/Get_a_grip_on_schoolk.shtml 
Many solid tips and recommended accessories for helping your kids have an organized school year.

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

A Robot Reads Our Blog

We’re not quite ready to start podcasting here at Project Simplify (though we’re getting close). In the meantime, Feed2Podcast has kindly provided us with “Angelina”, a computerized female voice, to read our blog out loud for you. She actually does a better job than I expected…you can follow it pretty well, once you get used to her speech mannerisms.

Now, thanks to Feed2Podcast and Angelina, you can “read” our latest posts while doing dishes, or running on the treadmill, or while multitasking on the computer. And while it’s not inherently simplifying to have a way to listen to our site while doing other things…it’s certainly simpler than trying to do dishes and read a computer screen at the same time! So if you’re doubling up tasks anyway, you can make “listen to Angelina read Project Simplify’s latest posts” part of your doubling. :-)

You can tune in to our quasi-podcast by clicking here. And you can also find it under Site Extras in the site’s sidebar, via the link labeled “A Robot Reads Our Blog“.

7. Keep Smiling

Overheard In The Office (and Elsewhere)

The “Overheard” series of websites takes submissions of amusing overheard snippets of conversation, frames them with amusing titles, and posts them for the amusement of the rest of us. The result is something like this:

The Kind Amerigo Vespucci Used to Make

Boss: Mmmm! This pizza’s good.
Employee: Oh, yeah. This deep dish one is great.
Boss: Oh, yeah. I saw that one, but it looked too weird to try.
Employee: Yeah, it’s Chicago style.
Boss: Oh, that’s why. I like just good old American-style pizza.

Frost Bank Building
Austin, Texas

Pulling in All Directions, Simultaneously

Exec: If we are going to succeed, we need strong leadership from everyone on the team.

50 Commerce Street
Trumbull, Connecticut

From the Shaolin Preschool Song Book

Co-Worker: If you’re happy and you know it…?
Co-Worker’s 2-year-old daughter: …don’t touch a knife!

1065 Williams Street
Atlanta, Georgia

Use the Shank Key

VP, using Instant Messenger: How do I type a smiley face that means, “I’ll cut you.”

550 Madison Avenue
New York, New York

What Do You Have to Do Around Here to Get Some Freaking Champagne?!

Employee: Can I help you find something?
Customer: I’m looking for a red wine.
Employee: Cabernet, pinot noir, shiraz?
Customer: No, I want a red wine.

1017 East Main Street
Radford, Virginia

Those are from Overheardintheoffice.com. There’s also Overheardatthebeach.com and Overheardinnewyork.com.
We’ll leave it to you to find if they are as amusing as the office version. :-)

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Thanks for reading – see you next week!

Publication Information
————————————————————————–
The Weekly Simplifier is published by:

Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: newsletter@projectsimplify.com